Also see Myths & Facts, a document published
by the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) (The Mattress
Manufacturers Association). This document was supplied to a TV station and
linked from the station's website report on poison mattresses. ISPA severely
misstates the facts. Our responses to their statements are listed below each
of their "Facts" and are titled "Real Facts."

With no labeling requirements for the
fireproofing chemicals Mattress Manufacturers typically say what you would
expect them to say:

“We don’t use chemicals, we use a natural system.”

“We don’t use chemicals, we use inherently
fire resistant fibers.”

“We don’t use chemicals, we use Kevlar”

“We don’t use chemicals, we use a
proprietary non-toxic system.”

Common sense should tell us there are no
natural or chemical free systems that will pass the two-foot wide blowtorch
open flame test for 70 seconds.

When you look at the table and percent of
chemicals used in fireproof mattresses published by the CPSC, you see the
basic choices manufacturers have. They all contain toxic chemicals
including Boric Acid (Roach Killer), Antimony (an Ancient poison almost
identical to Arsenic), Silicon, DBDPO, Fiberglass, Ammonium Polyphosphate,
Melamine, and Formaldehyde. All the Boric Acid systems also contain
Antimony. Most systems contain Antimony. Kevlar is only used in the
thread to hold the mattress together, not the fireproofing system. Even so
called inherently fire resistant fibers have toxic chemicals blended into
the fiber itself such as Antimony in Modacrylic fibers, Silicon in Visil,
and Formaldehyde in Melamine resin fibers. Fiberglass is an inhalation risk
by itself, but these systems also contain DBDPO (Deca) a toxin some groups
are trying to ban. We don’t think there are any proprietary systems the CPSC
doesn’t know about. If non-toxic systems exist, why doesn’t the CPSC point
them out? There are no labeling requirements because the CPSC says consumers
would not be able to distinguish a safe system. Indeed we can’t either,
there appear to be no safe systems, they all have health risks. This
chemical use in mattresses is especially risky with our close chronic
exposure for our entire lives.

If you can pin manufactures down on using
chemicals they say Boron, the main ingredient in Boric Acid, is found in
plants, fruits, vegetables, and wine, etc. However, these are minute
amounts. A Queen Size mattress can contain 1.5 pounds of Boric Acid and a
Crib Size a ½ pound. Small amounts of Boron are usually found in compounds
such as Borax. Boric Acid is the raw concentrated stuff. It is found in
nature in only one place in the world, a sulfur spring in Italy. Boric Acid
is made from the reaction of Borax and Sulfuric Acid. Boric Acid is
considered the best Roach Killer, and Roaches are hardy creatures. Boric
Acid will kill almost all insects and organisms.

Manufacturers will say Boric Acid has been
widely used in mattresses for 30 years. (They try not to tell you they
now also use Antimony, embedded in Modacrylic fibers, to pass the new open
flame test) We dispute how widely Boric Acid has been used in comparison
to 25 million new mattresses annually. Even so we may have already harmed
people and not know it. There are already 6,463 US cases of Boric Acid
poisoning each year. With the advent of the cigarette ignition law in
1973 they started adding 10% Boric Acid as fine powder to cotton batting so
it would pass the cigarette test. Its use has always been controversial; it
has never been studied for safety. Most manufactures moved away from cotton
batting because regular urethane foam and polyester fiber batting would pass
the cigarette test without added chemicals. Boric Acid treated cotton alone
will not pass the new open flame test. Now they must also add Antimony to
pass the test. All the Boric Acid flame proofing systems now also contain
Antimony.

Manufacturers will say there is an
infinitesimal amount of Boric Acid at the surface of the mattress. It is
blended as lose dust in the cotton batting and is at the surface of the
mattress to protect the inner components from fire. The NIST (National
Institute for Standards and Technology) has a shaking machine they use on
mattresses to shake out the lose Boric Acid before they fire test it. The
CPSC measured the amount of Boric Acid that leaches to the surface. Then the
CPSC employee writing the report to justify the regulation assumed we would
absorb only less than 1/10,000 of the Boric Acid that contacts our body. The
National Academy of Sciences in their study of selected fire retardant
chemicals for upholstered furniture in 2000 says Boric Acid does absorb
through skin and cause health effects. Plus there are sucking, mouthing, and
inhalation risks. They also recommend against using Antimony as a flame
retardant because of health and cancer risks.

Manufacturers and the CPSC say this
chemical use has been studied extensively. There are no scientific studies
that say it is safe to sleep in these chemicals. There is only one small
report generated by CPSC employees that tries to justify the regulation, and
it has many errors, omissions and problems. First they only examined a few
of the toxic chemicals used to flameproof mattresses. If you read the
highlighted lines and notes on this
report on our website you will see they
manipulated everything possible to reach a preexisting conclusion. They
underestimate how much poison we absorb, overestimate how much is safe,
exclude children under age five, and the report fails the independent
review.

After measuring the amount of toxic
chemicals that leach to the surface the CPSC assumes without data that we
will absorb only 1/10,000 of the Boric Acid, 1/1,000’s of the DBDPO, and
2/1,000’s of the Antimony that contacts our bodies. With this assumption
they say we will absorb .081 mg Boric Acid, .073 mg DBDPO, and .802 mg
Antimony, every night for the rest of our lives. They conclude this
amount of poison absorption is safe for everyone, except children under
age five who they excluded by assuming all these children will sleep on
vinyl sheets due to bedwetting problems, and that this will protect them
from the toxic chemicals in their mattresses.

The independent reviewer complained about
many things that the CPSC simply rebutted and ignored. The reviewer
complained strongly that they changed the rules of the National Academes of
Sciences “Child Sucking Test” to get lower numbers, and then they did not
even apply the test to one year old children who the test was designed to
protect. Our analysis shows mattresses would clearly fail this test.

The independent reviewer complained their
assumptions of safe levels of toxin exposures do not agree with other
government agencies. For Antimony the CPSC says it is safe to absorb 166 mg
daily, while the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it is safe to
absorb only .03 mg, a difference of more than 5,000 times. Even with low
skin absorption assumptions the CPSC says we will absorb .8 mg antimony
nightly; this is 27 times more poison than what the EPA says is safe. Most
government agencies say they can not determine a safe level of Antimony
absorption because even at the lowest levels tested there were serious
health effects.

The CDC reports studies that a single
skin application of Antimony kills rabbits, and another that says six to
eight skin applications of Antimony Trioxide, the exact form used in
mattresses, in a mixture formulated to resemble sweat killed half the
rabbits studied. We know we absorb medicines through our skin from small
patches. It seems we may absorb much more Antimony than the CPSC predicts.

In a 2004 CPSC report the same authors of
the 2006 report justifying the regulation state: “Data are needed to
determine the conditions for, and potential releases of, Formaldehyde from
barriers made with melamine/formaldehyde resin fibers.” They knew about
formaldehyde dangers and completely omitted it from their 2006 report.
Formaldehyde is serious poison causing blindness and death and is a known
human carcinogen. Formaldehyde concentrations of only 10 to 15 parts per
million have caused nasal cancer in rats. With our noses next to these
mattresses for many years what will it do to us?

The CPSC tested mattresses treated with
Ammonium Polyphosphate and stated “a substantial amount of Ammonium
Polyphosphate was released.” However, they say that since it is not
considered acutely toxic or cancer causing like Boric Acid or Antimony under
the FSHA guidelines published in 1992, they are required by law to use, they
say, “ammonium polyphosphate is not expected to result in any health effects
to consumers.” This is apparently the safest choice the CPSC can come up
with, but you will never get to choose your poison in mattresses because
there are no labeling requirements. We doubt our children chronically
absorbing this fertilizer will grow any better.

Below is the official written response from
the US Consumer Products Safety Commission to the 800 Doctor and public
comments they received against the fireproof mattress regulation. They
normally only receive about twenty comments on most new regulations. These
800 commenter’s are concerned that the risk of 300 Million Americans
sleeping in toxic chemicals outweighs the benefit. Plus many people do not
want their freedom of choice taken from them and be forced to unknowingly
sleep in and absorb toxic chemicals. One commenter called this “a human
experiment without consent.”

“Comment: Some individuals commented that the
"precautionary principle" should be applied to FR chemicals, that is, they
should not be used until proven safe.

CPSC Response: All of the statues that
provide regulatory authority to the CPSC explicitly require risk-based
decision making, thus precluding application of the "precautionary
principle."”

Close chronic full body, mouthing, and
breathing contact with known toxins in mattresses for our entire lives is
especially risky.

It is NOT proven safe to sleep in these
chemicals!

In twenty to thirty years after we test our
entire population we will find out if it is safe. The CPSC says if we find
human harm it is up to other agencies to ban that specific chemical. We
think it is a little late after we have harmed or killed millions of people
to ban a chemical. There are no safe chemicals, only safe use.

While you may not be at immediate risk you
will replace your mattress within a few years and you, your children, and
your grandchildren will unknowingly sleep in toxins for your entire lives.